The Real Commodore Vic-20 Prototype

The Real Commodore Vic-20 Prototype

Thanks to Marty Goldberg and his post on the Facebook group, Vintage Gaming (& Computing), we were given the heads-up on John Feagan’s photo and commentary on some early Commodore Vic-20 history. Here’s John’s commentary:

History of the Vic-20 development has been rewritten by the non-participants–but I have the pictures. Here is the real deal developed at the Commodore Advanced Moorepark development center in San Jose, CA in July 1980. It took another year of production engineering and a launch in Japan before it made it to the US. My wife translated the users manual to English from Japanese.

The original Commodore Vic-20 prototype [Photo credit: John Feagan]

So there you have it, history from the source. You’ll note in the photo that the Vic-20 prototype is styled similarly to the original Commodore PET from 1977, complete with funky calculator-style keyboard. Naturally, upon its actual retail release, the Vic-20 would receive its own, larger case, the iconic “breadbox” design and a full stroke keyboard, both of which would also be found in the best selling Commodore 64 just a few years later (and similarly found on all PET computers after the original models).

Interestingly, having a full stroke keyboard on a low end/budget computer like the Vic-20 was actually something of a coup for Commodore, as most such releases from other companies featured lower cost chiclet or membrane-style keyboard parts (and in fact, one Commodore Japanese-only release featured just such a compromise). As detailed in books like our own CoCo: The Colorful History of Tandy’s Underdog Computer, even penny savings were often the difference between one part being included in a production run of a computer over another, since even the smallest amount saved could translate to big money over tens or hundreds of thousands of units (if not eventually millions).

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About Bill Loguidice

Bill Loguidice is a critically acclaimed technology author and journalist, as well as co-founder and Managing Director for the online publication, Armchair Arcade, and co-founder of creative services firm, Armchair Creative Services. A noted videogame and computer historian and subject matter expert, Bill owns and maintains well over 500 different systems from the 1970s to the present day, including a large volume of associated materials. See full bio

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There were two prototype machines that eventually led to the Vic-20. Jack Tramiel had synthesized a very angry rivalry between the engineers at Moorpark and MOS. The Moorpark prototype (which was more functionally refined but less so physically) that Feagens claims is the “real” Vic-20 prototype was supposedly rejected by Jack, who was under the impression that the MOS prototype was ready to ship. He was also a bit ticked that Chuck Peddle’s Moorepark team wasn’t doing what he told them to do – – not work on his small color computer, but design an Apple II killer.

What eventually became the Vic-20 was the MOS prototype, heavily modified by Bob Russell with assistance from John Feagans and Bill Seiler at Moorpark.

Bottom line: to claim that either prototype was the “real prototype” is a little disingenuous. In the end, it was what some would describe as a reluctant amalgamation of both. No offense to John, whom I don’t know personally. But it would not be unreasonable to suspect that, to this day, there is a little bitterness between the two factions leading to animosity.

I’d like to hear from Robert Russell, to whom the project was eventually entrusted.

I am pretty sure the penny pinching savings are what killed a lot of 8 bit machines in the market and that the spending on a decent keyboard is what launched the Vic20 and then the C64 to be the true mass machines.

For an end user, if the cost is £399 or £395 it’s not a lot of difference. However, a real keyboard or rubber splodgeyness? THAT they notice for the whole life of the machine.

I am pretty sure that a few extra pennies spent on the keyboard were more than made up in the extra volume (millions) of units shipped as opposed to thousands for a lot of other machines. It’s “cost engineered” not “value engineered”, unless you mean in terms of engineering all the value out of the final product!

As a consumer, I would certainly rather pay 1% more on almost ANY product to have it be much better, more reliable and look nicer.

I’ve always stated that the C-64’s killer combination of price and just-the-right-mix-of-features (decent keyboard, 64K standard, solid graphics/colors, great sound, two joystick ports, expansion, etc.) is what ultimately made it virtually impossible for any other computer to compete on the low end of the market in worldwide sales. Commodore’s spiritual successor, the Amiga 500, was never going to get low enough in price to create similar results, particularly since the addition of at least a monitor was all but necessary. The C-64 was the right computer at the right time at the right price.

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